Social Sustainability: Building Resilient Food Systems

“The notion that the food system can be transformed through individual acts of consumption—rather than through lobbying, organizing, boycotts, mobilization, or direct action—fits nicely within the prevailing neoliberal economic rhetoric: that unregulated capitalist markets yield the most efficient allocation of resources.”

 – Eric Holt-Giménez and Yi Wang, 2011

As this initial quote so eloquently puts it, post-colonial forms of domination have influenced practices and policies within food systems. Power of what colonists referred to as “barbaric” or “savage” nations continues to be embedded in the very structures of our society. What follows below is an abridgment/summary of some of the challenges that affect food systems and constructive ideas moving forward from the ongoing global coronavirus crisis.  

Social Justice and Human Rights

Although there has been much media coverage of labor shortages and issues with global food distribution, there are underlying factors that are far more potent in terms of an actual threat. Such deeply rooted issues stem from public health concerns and social inequities faced by farmworkers, consumers, and all those, directly and indirectly participating in the food system.

Industrial farming and public health concerns:

• Overcrowding on factory farms, where cattle, pigs and chickens are raised, is responsible for global health implications far beyond what we may have imagined. Industrialized factory farms can transmit zoonotic diseases via water, air, food, and directly through the transmission of farmers. Five modern diseases on the rise because of factory farms are E.Coli, MRSA, Mad Cow Disease, Salmonella and Obesity.

• The need for intensive agricultural practices in monocropped corn, soy, and produce relies heavily on synthetic fertilizers and pesticides. Herbicide exposure, like that of Glyphosate, threatens human health while disrupting the ecosystem of numerous organisms. Growing evidence by Environmental Health Perspectives and Nature suggest that the human gut microbiome is subject to intestinal dysbiosis (imbalance of microflora), when exposed to xenobiotics, organic pollutants, and foodborne chemicals. More in-depth recent research has been able to associate the dysbiosis of the lung microbiome with the development of respiratory diseases. The severity of these findings implies that continued use of agricultural chemicals can increase the risk of human vulnerability to acute respiratory infections like that of (SARS-CoV-2). 

• The production of inexpensive, low nutrient food contributes to agricultural runoff. And because agricultural runoff impacts water quality, the likelihood of tap water contamination along with seafood poisoning is greater. 

• For the farm and factory workers who make up the agricultural workforce, their fundamental human rights and health are neglected. A recent article by The Guardian revealed some of the labor-intensive and hazardous conditions experienced by U.S farmworkers. These ranged from long working days, exposure to extreme heat, to lack of access to water. Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) reported in 2019 that an estimated 70,000 farm workers were injured and 815 killed due to heat exposure. Findings by the Agricultural Health Study suggest that certain pesticides are linked to kidney cancer in agricultural workers. Other studies conducted by the National Library of Medicine say that farming populations in countries like the United Kingdom, Europe, Australia, Canada, and the United States experienced one of the highest rates of suicide. 

Social inequity/ human rights issues: 

This section will examine some of the repercussions associated with incompetent policies and governments and their inability to protect different supply chain sectors. 

• Beginning with farmworkers, living conditions for workers vary depending on geographic location, immigration status, etc. Still, in places like the U.S., inflated housing prices accompanied by low-paying wages often force workers to live in “substandard housing conditions.” Similarly, living in remote areas deprives these workers of essential services, education, and support systems. 

• Increased production demand is one challenge often faced by the food processing workforce. Demand for food production, especially during the pandemic, revealed the invisible issues in our food system. Worker shortages halted food production worldwide and created enormous demand for production workers who needed time off.

• The issue of food security among urban, low-income ethnic minority groups is another outcome of our ailing food systems. Availability of nutritious food and its affordability neglects the needs and root problems of diverse communities. Yet, it seems like the most immediate solution to these problems is to provide greater accessibility to fast food chains. As if this wasn’t bad enough, food pantries, which are supposed to distribute food directly to those in need, are also stigmatized. Invisible inequalities in our food systems are the reason why “more than one-third of American adults, and 48% of African American adults, are obese” (CDC, 2015). Ultimately, all these problems raise a critical question: How can consumers eat locally, ethically, and sustainably without purchasing power? 

Thinking ahead:

To build socially responsible and sustainable food systems, we will need to:

Take Collective Action by:

1. Subsidizing urban and suburban farming industries that protect and promote soil biodiversity. Minimizing soil disturbance while maximizing microbiome biodiversity directly through regenerative agricultural practices will eliminate any dependency on fertilizer, solve agricultural runoff issues, and protect public health.
2. Increase public health safety measures by improving the way food is processed, shipped, and distributed.
3. Provide technical assistance by documenting more studies on the challenges faced by farmworkers. One example is to amplify nationwide real-time heat stress monitoring programs.
4. Establish workforce unions that protect incomes, families and farmworkers.
5. Provide education sessions on structural racism within the food system. 
6. Support infrastructure that focuses on the development of small, local, sustainable food enterprises and initiatives. 
7. Introduce a food systems approach to our food supply chain. Since every step of the supply chain requires human and/or natural resources, knowing how to support not just good environmental practices but the rights and livelihoods of individuals along the food chain are crucial. And lastly, establishing food policies that are guided by a concept known as agroecology. 

Individual Actions: 

Support farm and food workers with more than just your purchasing power. For example, opting to support grassroots movements that work locally by volunteering, donating, or advocating for what they stand for. 

In this last section, I would like to provide a list of valuable resources:

1. History, Food Justice, and Policy 
2. Labor and Workers in the Food System
3. Anti-Racism and Food System Work 
4. Racial Equity Tools for Food Justice
5. Why Disability Justice is Important for Food Justice
6. Practice that Drives Policy towards Indigenous Food Sovereignty
7. Repairing our broken food system 
8. Watch the film: Biggest Little Farm

I want to finish this review with a powerful quote from Policylink “An equitable food system is one that creates a new paradigm in which all — including those most vulnerable and those living in low-income neighborhoods and communities of color — can fully participate, prosper, and benefit. It is a system that, from farm to table, from processing to disposal, ensures economic opportunity; high-quality jobs with living wages; safe working conditions; access to healthy, affordable, and culturally appropriate food; and environmental sustainability.”

Featured image from CSRIO